Every work opens in a viewer that shows what it is, where its files live and that they haven’t changed.
Browsers can already show images, play video and run code, but a new kind of artwork usually needs every marketplace to build support for it. KEEL packages a viewer (we call it the shell) with the work, so any compatible site can open it without rebuilding it for each collection.
Why the viewer travels with the workEven a simple image deserves an explanation: what it is, where its files live, what else it uses and what has been checked. The viewer shows that next to the work, so collectors can check it without being experts. The artist’s code runs separately from those checks, so it can’t tamper with them.
What the viewer checksUse the standard KEEL viewer, pick another compatible one, or release the work on its own. Where the files are stored and how the work is shown are separate choices. Only the standard viewer carries KEEL’s checks.
What KEEL leaves up to youA project lists its own files and the shared tools it needs. Libraries and engines can be reused from a shared catalog, and each one has a fingerprint, so a work always gets the exact version it was made with.
Storage and shared toolsA work might be a large video or use a format that isn’t common yet. Start with what the work needs today, with an honest record of what is stored onchain and what still lives elsewhere. As costs and tools improve, more can move onchain through recorded, approved updates that stay connected to the original.
Onchain work can link to other systems. What matters is knowing what those links lead to, which files are fixed and who can change them. New viewers, including ones built with AI, can join without breaking what people already own.
Later, a work may be able to ask the viewer for extra abilities that have been approved in advance. A marketplace still decides what it allows; the viewer can’t override that.
The index makes the system searchable: which collection a release came from, what it uses, what changed and where the proof lives. Being listed doesn’t mean a work has been approved or fully checked; the checks always go back to the blockchain itself.
How the index works
